Citi Steel USA, located fifteen miles south of Philadelphia in Claymont Delaware, is a discrete producer of low alloy high strength steel plate. Citisteel is celebrating it's tenth year of operation at the facility located on the banks of the Delaware River. Makeup water from the river is utilised for the fifty million gallon closed loop process water system. The water system contains dirt from three sources. The first source was comprised of makeup, such as sand, algae, silt, leaves and microbiological growth. Another source included process by-products, such as scale and iron oxide. The third source was air borne particles that are collected in the open surfaces. The clogging of caster nozzles in the Melt Shop and roll cooling nozzles in the Plate Mil were the most frequently encountered problems.

The nozzle clogging was most prevalent in these areas due to the fine spray requirement. Various methods of solving the contamination problems were discussed. Large system filtration packages for the main process header water feed were the initial concept.

This idea of filtering all the water to micron ratings required for fine spray applications was very costly. After careful consideration and a complete system review, it was decided that an alternative concept of installing filters in specific locations, designed exactly for the application requirements, was more cost effective. There was a concern, however, regarding system integration and interchangeability of parts in the various filtration locations.

With this in mind, Orival offered a complete system approach where the filters, manifolds and all necessary valves, hardware and gaskets were pre-assembled and prewired requiring only inlet, outlet, backwash and power supply connections.

The manifold was prepared and coated with the same care as the Orival filters. Each system consists of Orival, 1320 gpm, OR-08- PS units and Orival, 660 gpm, OR-06-PE units which allows for almost complete parts interchangeability between each system, thus reducing the level of spare parts inventory.

The problem of internal nozzles clogging was eliminated in the Plate Mill and greatly reduced in the Melt Shop with the installation of the Orival 50 micron, automatic self-cleaning water filtration systems. The virtually maintenance free filtration units were purchased as assembled units ready for flanged bolt-up connections. The only utility source, other than the water to be filtered, is a 120 V AC power source to the Omnitrol 1000 Electrical Control System. The control system required minor pre-startup programming that was so user friendly that a mechanical technician performed the task. Each filter can be programmed to backwash at a preset pressure differential and/or at a preset time. Orival was very supportive during the system designs and delivered each unit on or before the scheduled delivery dates. The first of the units has been in operation for three years and has no required any maintenance attention other than normal daily checklist monitoring of the system's controller which displays the number of backwash cycles performed. The other units have had similar minor maintenance requirements.

Recently, due to the north-east summer drought, the HVAC city water supply was switched to pond water. Again, Orival supplied a 25 micron pre-assembled 24PEDR1 Filtration system, allowing us to maintain the same level of cooling efficiency.

About Orival

Orival Inc is a leading manufacturer of self-cleaning water filters, automatic water filters and strainers, for use as industrial water filters, irrigation filters, cooling tower filters and more.

Distributor in India

Gopani Product Systems has 15 years experience in designing and manufacturing of Cartridge filtration systems, Bag filtration systems, Sparkler filters from various materials like PP, stainless steel, mild steel, etc.

(Contact: gopani.pr@gmail.com, www.gopani.com)